This invention relates to including videos in a feed sent to client devices of users by a social networking system and, in particular, to determining a rate at which videos are included in the feed sent to client devices of users by the social networking system.
Social networking systems receive content from content providers, as well as users of the social networking system, and provide the content to users. For example, content may be provided in the form of a feed to users. A feed can include feed stories that can include text, images, or videos. If a social networking system provides content to a user and the user is not interested in the content, the social networking system wastes resources such as network bandwidth. Furthermore, the social networking system provides poor user experience. For example, a user may prefer to watch videos in a feed in certain contexts and avoid watching videos in other contexts. Similarly, a particular user may prefer to watch content of a particular type in a given context whereas a different user may avoid content of the same type in that context. Conventional techniques for providing content items to users typically use broad targeting criteria for identifying content sent to users. For example the targeting criteria may be based on user demographics. Conventional techniques based on broad targeting criteria often provide content to users that they may not be interested in, thereby wasting resources and providing poor user experience.